


almost

by megamegaturtle



Category: Megamind (2010)
Genre: Almost Kiss, Angst, F/M, Mutual Pining
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-03
Updated: 2017-05-03
Packaged: 2018-10-27 05:46:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,197
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10802976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/megamegaturtle/pseuds/megamegaturtle
Summary: This is a story about almost.al·mostˈôlˌmōst/adverbnot quite; very nearly.





	almost

**Author's Note:**

  * For [setepenre_set](https://archiveofourown.org/users/setepenre_set/gifts).



This is a story about  _ almost _ . 

al·most 

ˈôlˌmōst/

_ adverb _

  1. not quite; very nearly.



This is a story about  _ almost _ moments, about  _ almost _ times, about  _ almost _ they aligned and met and became one, but fate kept them parted. Just near, but not quite. Just—a brush of fingertips, of shoulders, but never lips.

Never anything to bring them close, never anything to make everything clear, never, never, never—just almost something once, twice, thrice, etcetera.

Almost somethings and complete nothings and somewhat perhaps. Maybe, if only, one day, not now, but possibly then.

This is a story of almosts, between Megamind and Roxanne. 

If we start at the beginning though, we would know that fate would have that Megamind  _ almost _ didn’t come to Earth. It’s a small almost in the odds of possibilities, but it is there nonetheless. For there are other worlds with oxygen and water and life as we know it, close to our solar star, but not as close all the same. And maybe, in  _ that _ timeline, in  _ that _ reality, an asteroid bounced off his little pod and set him off course of Earth’s trajectory by a few degrees and he ended up elsewhere instead.

On a planet without humans, on a planet that could be tidally locked, on a plant we don’t know.  On a plant where there is no Roxanne. 

(Or Metro Man)

It’s a small almost, a tiny one in the things that almost could have happened, but didn’t. Not because it couldn’t, but didn’t in the way that destiny takes hold and has a plan that requires that almost to never exist.

For  _ something _ has to happen for nothing to happen at all. Nothing minus desire and missed chances and  _ oh god, I should have done something, should have said something, should have, should have, should have _ . 

This is a story about almosts, but not quites after all and there can be no regrets when someone isn’t aware that it’s something they wanted all along. 

So, Megamind never goes to another planet. He ends up on Earth, finding a home in a prison, rooted in the way that life would have it. He  _ almost  _ didn’t make it. He  _ almost _ got sucked into a black hole with his parents. He  _ almost _ ,  _ almost _ ,  _ almost _ landed at Scott Manor, in the lap of luxury, in a different life entirely, but he didn't. 

He wouldn’t be Megamind if he didn’t land in the prison, wouldn’t be Megamind if he didn’t land on Earth, wouldn’t be Megamind if he landed elsewhere instead. Wouldn’t be, wouldn’t be. 

He could have been anyone else, the list of possibilities endless, infinite, but he didn’t.

He became Megamind, the last of his kind, fought through space and time, fought against all odds, fought against becoming nothing, becoming part of the void and became  _ something _ . Is it evil truly wrong when it takes someone from nothing and give them meaning? Who needs goodness where there is no purpose? And Megamind is filled to the brim with purpose and determination and things a will so strong he refuses to break in two. 

Because almost breaking doesn’t happen, almost snapping doesn’t happen, this is a story about almosts and maybes and Megamind couldn’t be the man, the male, the-he-has-no-words-for-his-people he is today if he gave way to  _ almost _ .

The beginning for Roxanne, however, has always been more certain. Fate wanted her born, fate wanted her made, fate wanted her and made sure to give her a path to call her own. The story of almost for Roxanne isn’t if she  _ almost lived  _ or  _ almost  _ died. The story of Roxanne circles entirely around Megamind. 

For if Megamind didn’t come to Earth, Roxanne still would have lived as people do, still wondered about the stars at night, still grown up in a fracturing home, still become a journalist, still, still, still. 

Her life would still move on, would still continue, would still, still, still, still be something. Maybe there would be an absence, maybe it would have been less exciting, maybe it would have been less blue.

She would almost become someone important, but not having the fame wouldn’t bother her. She’d never knew popularity. And she would almost seek truth and justice as fiercely, but without anything to follow, she would remain satiated at wondering, at daydreaming instead. 

_ Almost _ for Roxanne is that she doesn’t _ become _ something, doesn’t  _ love  _ something, doesn’t  _ be  _ something. She remains a stone, unmoving and unyielding as the Earth spins on it’s axis, forever going forward in some direction without purpose. 

Her trajectory is neither upwards nor downwards, just stagnant with wondering of a different future. She gets a job, finds a husband, has 2.5 kids and dies from natural causes. 

It’s not a bad  _ almost _ , it’s not bad at all, but it is— 

—lacking?

No.

Wrong. The word I’m looking for is  _ wrong _ . 

It’s wrong, thank god. Thank god and thank all that it is wrong and never comes to be because it’s one  _ almost _ that Roxanne can’t handle. It’s one  _ almost _ that Roxanne is so grateful just doesn’t happen. 

She is a s stone, yes. But Megamind is the wave, that comes crashing down, comes eroding away a path for them to call their own, a place where they meet, a place to call theirs, a place where—

—they almost become one and almost fall in love and maybe they do and maybe they mean to, but everything that keeps apart in this time, in the one where he spins her axis backwards is that because of them. Not fate, not destiny, not anything else, but them being stupid and them living life— 

This story of almosts between Megamind and Roxanne is truly self inflicted.  

* * *

 

They almost meet when they are nine years old. Almost, just barely, not really, you see.

The story goes that the Ritchis are new in town and Mr. Ritchi gets a contract to work at the city prison. He’s a social worker. There’s a school near the prison. Perfect to be close to his young daughter in case of an emergency. And the little alien boy who happens to live in the prison apparently goes to the same school. Even more perfect, Mr. Ritchi thinks. 

A guaranteed friend for his daughter, the bright eyed and ever curious little Roxanne. He seems sweet, the alien boy despite growing up in a prison, and maybe it’s his social worker’s calling, but he thinks—

—maybe if his daugher and this boy become friends it will change their lives for the better. 

Roxanne has a hard time making friends after all. She’s too smart for her own good and blunt and maybe she needs someone to challenge her because heaven knows that she’s bored with just about everything. And he’s read this boy’s file. It’s big and rubber banded a few times, but he’s smart too. Clever and creative and he can see something really bloom. 

He’s so eager to try. So, so, eager to try. 

So, he signs the forms with his wife’s consent and together they take their darling daughter, the smartest kid they know for her first day at her new school, Lil’ Gifted. 

And, Megamind and Roxanne almost meet, that one fateful day. She’s excited to meet people like her, just as bright and curious and a little different. She’s excited, jumping in her seat in the backseat of the car, asking question after question.

“Will I make friends?”

“Is this a magnet school?”

“Do you think we’ll learn chemistry and how to blow stuff up?”

The story goes that the Ritchis step out of the car, Roxanne’s pig tails swishing in the wind and she’s wearing her best sneakers and overalls for this lovely spring day. She picked her outfit herself. It has a lighting bolt on the front pocket with a dark thundercloud. She likes electricty a lot. Her favorite thing is static glass ball she can touch. 

The gravel crunches under her feet with the first step she takes and she—

—doesn’t take a second step, her parents throwing their arms around her automatically because a blue cloud bursts from all the windows and door of the little red schoolhouse and her jaw hangs open as—

All she can see is blue and sirens come flashing and a little boy her age is flying and he’s holding another boy dressed in orange who is cackling because the other boy is blue and everyone is blue. Blue, blue, blue just like him.

The real blue boy, blue as in her favorite color, blue as in the sky and sea combined, the one who didn’t get blasted by the cloud, is placed in handcuffs before he happily beams, as if he wanted to happen. Roxanne’s parents are busy talking to the police for a few minutes and she’s standing by herself, not covered in blue. The blue boy notices her finally when his gaze catches her and his eyes are so green and  _ pretty _ and— 

—he grins at her, opening his mouth as if he’s about to say something before her mother snatches her away, tugging on her hand, twisting her body to look the other way. 

(“Good thing you didn’t come to school yet,” little Megamind almost says.) 

Roxanne wants to look back, she wants to yank her arm away, she wants to ask  _ why did you make a paint bomb? why are you blue? your fish is really cool, did it just talk? why are you wearing a prison uniform? why? why? why? _

She doesn’t. Can’t really. Fate forces them in seperate directions. 

In the end, the story goes that Mr. Ritchi ends his contract with the Metro City prison before it even begins. The story goes that Roxanne goes to a public school not too far from her neighborhood where she is less bored than her last school, but bored all the same. The story goes if they would have met sooner, maybe everything would have changed.

* * *

 

She’s near, he’s near, they’re almost eighteen years old and life is  _ about to happen _ , but not quite. 

They meet when they’re younger, freshman with new ideas. Maybe  _ fresh _ starts for something extraordinary, a tinge of hope that they don’t want to admit, but it’s there, lurking and waiting and—

—Roxanne no longer wears lighting blots or overalls or her hair in pigtails. She wears nice long skirts and wakes up to curl her hair in the morning. She’s pretty, she learns. And still smart, not different, but ambitious. Someone to be groomed to become greater than she already is. That’s the hope they place in her. She wears it like a blinding badge and refuses to be anything lesser.

Megamind is hopeful in a secret way, doesn’t say that he wishes he wasn’t as lonely or as different or as bored as he really is, but he never says it. He almost does, almost gives in. Gives in as in that way that you can’t take back, but doesn’t. Can’t. Won’t. Minion would hate him.  So, he doesn’t. Almost, but doesn’t. No one has hope for him save for he and Minon and well, he learns that’s okay. That’s all he needs. He will keep his hope preciously close to his heart and won’t let anyone know that it exists. He can’t. 

His world and Roxanne’s world circle each other, orbit like bodies around a sun and he’s not sure if that’s poetic or sadistic or both. He likes it though. They share just about every class together, but they don’t sit together. They are in the same room, breathing the same air, but they are never quite so near. 

(He likes her in the way that young men like young women and he won’t say anything about it either. It’s something special, just for him.) 

Well, he is almost near her and she is almost near him, but she sits in the front and he in the back and—

The almost between them is shattered in a single moment beginning their senior year when Roxanne actually sits next to him on a random Tuesday in their honors English class. She sets her bag beside her chair and starts to pile her things on top of the desk. Places her textbook off the corner, her notebook smack dab in the middle, with her pens precisely perched by it’s side. Megamind watches her out of the corner of his eye, curious and heart thudding in his chest as he pretends that he’s not staring whatsoever.

Roxanne takes a deep breath and shifts in her sit, twists to face him and crosses her ankles. Megamind follows her movement and turns his torso to face her, being at least somewhat polite. He hopes that she speaks first because he doesn’t think he’ll be able to form words. 

(She is...really beautiful and her eyes burn with blue fire and her gaze is solely on him and he wants to run, run, run, run, because why is she looking at him?) 

She smiles, predatory and determined. “Two things,” she starts, straight to the point and efficient. “First, will you tutor me in physics?” 

She doesn’t ask  _ can  _ he tutor her in physics, doesn’t doubt his ability, doesn’t have to wonder how good he is at physics. Just ask  _ will _ despite the fact they haven’t really spoken despite being caught in a gravitation pull of elevated high school education. 

He knows that she’s ambitious and cunning. Clever and understands the phrase a “means to an end”. They don’t need to speak for him to see the way she carries herself, self-assured and confident, comfortable in her own skin as she takes charge—control of this committee, enforcing rules here, organizing practically every event. 

It’s...overwhelming. To watch her seize control of everything.

A second skips and she’s looking at him, waiting for his answer. As if he ever had a choice when she settled in the desk besides him, encroaching in his space, a faint spicy perfume filling the air. 

“Sure. I’ll help you,” he says. How he isn’t sure, he can barely hear his voice over his heartbeat.

Her smile softens and she looks relieved. She places a well manicured hand over her heart. “Oh thank god,” she breathes. “I wasn’t sure if you’d turn me down.”

Megamind finally twists completely, feeling more at ease and chokes back a laugh. “I doubt you’d let me. You’re,” he pauses, averting his eyes for a moment, “slightly terrifying.” 

She laughs and leans forward. “I’m terrifying? You do realize you have a death stare, right?” 

He shrugs, a smirk tugging at his lips. “I might practice it every day, give or take.” She grins and he feels light, kinda breathless and asks. “What’s the second thing?” 

Roxanne snaps her fingers. “Oh yeah. The second thing. Will you be my partner for the midterm project?”

It catches him by surprise, the way she asks, as if it’s natural to ask. A simple something to forget because it’s not a big deal. She looks at him patiently, leans almost if she’s on the edge of her seat, waiting for him to respond again. It’s—

For the first time in a long while, Megamind slowly smiles and has something to be outwardly hopeful for. He nods and pulls out a piece of paper. “What’s the plan?” 

And this is the start of the almosts between Megamind and Roxanne. Two teenagers wavering between youth and adulthood. He almost doesn’t walk her to their next class, but does so anyway. It’s more fun, he learns, to walk to class with someone and talk with them. 

She finds him oddly funny. Throws back her head with laughter and playfully smacks him on the arm. “I know that Tesla has done a lot for science, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone pray to him before!” 

“Well, let me tell you. At least with Tesla you have you proof of his genius.”

He almost can ignore the way people stare at them for the day as they travel from class to class together, but he can’t. Roxanne does though, it seems, pretends it’s not happening. Enjoys the quiet of a lunch outside and doesn’t mind not speak as she’s engrossed with a book. Sits next to him and diligently takes notes, turning to him on occasion to whisper something here or there. It’s odd. And different and it’s almost amazing, but instead it’s tinged with unease through its very threading. 

The last bell rings and everyone packs up to get home and—

Megamind softly calls after Roxanne, needing to understand. She turns around with her strap snug on her shoulder, her head tilted to the side, waiting for him to continue. People linger at the doorway though, including Wayne Scott, his eyes ever following from the edges of the hall. Roxanne follows his line of sight, turning her chin over her shoulder and she fidgets with the material at the hem of her shirt. 

When she looks back at him, she has a frustrated smile. “Walk me to my car, yeah?” 

Megamind nods wordlessly, picks up his own backpack and follows her out the door. Metro Dude hangs in the air, his eyes narrowing as he sees the pair, but Roxanne scowls and motions him to go away. 

It’s a tense few moments, the journey from the hallway to outside, but when the afternoon sun hits them, Roxanne turns around and walks backwards, groaning. “I’m so sorry. About that. This? I know that this is awkward and um…” 

Roxanne rambles about awkwardness, going in circles how she didn’t mean make him feel uncomfortable. As if she can make him feel uncomfortable. She rambles and her hands are flying in every direction and Megamind’s eyes wander to the cracked sidewalk that juts upwards and— 

Roxanne stumbles backwards, yelping, and Megamind lurches forward, his hand tightening around her upper arm and stabling her up right. He holds her bicep for a few moments, holding on her gaze before a cracks a smile and starts laughing. She starts laughing too and walks beside him instead. 

“So,  _ as I was saying _ , you know, before I apparently was meant to die, I’m sorry.” 

There are less people in the parking lot and Megamind doesn’t feel so many eyes on him. It makes him more at ease, content even as her red sedan comes into view. 

“Why are you sorry? It’s—”

“It’s just weird that I’d want to hang out with you all of a sudden?” she rushes, hoping, pleading. “Maybe?”

He awkwardly laughs. “Yeah, maybe,” he agrees. His lips press thin though. “I don’t mind you wanting to hang out with me, quite the opposite really, just everyone is so damn annoying and well, it was fun, to hang out with someone.” 

“Well—” she hesitates and then stops, leaning on her car frame. “Can I tell you something?” 

Megamind tilts his head to the side. “Sure?” 

Roxanne takes a deep breath. “I’m honestly bored with everyone and you’re just not boring at all.” 

“...thank you?” 

He really doesn’t know what else to say. That’s a compliment, right?

“No, really! It’s true! You’re smart and clever and  _ interesting _ . I can actually talk to you. About books. And things,” she trails, trying to find her words. “I think you’re cool, Megamind, and I want to hang out with you. Is that okay?”

Oh dear—the way the sun is shining in her hair and she’s propped up against her car and all the movies he’s seen about teenagers and—   

He chokes and spurts. “Are you asking me out on a date?!”

Roxanne immediately blushes. “I don’t think so?” she cries, sound just as baffled. “I think I’m asking you to be my friend! I don’t know, I don’t usually ask people to be my friends!” 

Megamind feels himself blushing too, trailing down his neck and shoulders. “Well, people don’t usually want to be friends with me,” he says quietly.

He stills when she puts a hand on his arm. “I do. Like I said, I think you’re cool. And who knows, maybe I’ll really ask you out on a date.” 

He rolls his eyes, feeling himself smile despite himself. “What’s it called, a friend date?” 

She grins. “Yeah, maybe one of those too.” 

The afternoon sun is warm and friendly, just like Roxanne is friendly and— 

The distance between them closes as they spend more time together. Megamind helps her with her physics, they have lunch together, do homework together, walk from classes together. 

After the first few days, people stop staring and instead come up to them. To talk sometimes, or see how they’re doing. Or ever ask Megamind what he got on his homework. He—kinda has more friends? In passing.  
Needless to say, Minion is proud of him and is excited about Roxanne. 

(The first time they meet, Roxanne comments on how handsome a fish Minon is and said fish preens for days.) 

She worms her way through all his layers, claws through his defenses and makes him weak in the knees when she smiles. His heart beats and beats and beats for days and— 

She actually does ask him out on a date. To the homecoming dance. 

And almost comes back and rear it’s ugly head as Megamind stands on the street corner near Roxanne’s house. He’s wearing all black from his sports jacket to his shoes, he’s never felt more alive than in this moment.

But, and there will always be a but because this is a story of almost.

His heart is breaking in his chest when he sees a boy similar to himself go up to another girl’s house and ring the doorbell that Megamind realizes just how  _ wrong _ he is to be there. Roxanne shouldn’t—can’t—she can’t like him not because he doubts her, but because it isn’t right and she should be, should be—

(With someone like her. Intelligent, kind, normal. Human.) 

(He did think that maybe he could maybe kiss her at the end of the night and that was where all the trouble began, that he could kiss like he had a right to that he— 

could kiss her and be happy.)

Megamind almost goes up to Roxanne’s door and rings the bell, wanting happiness to warm his skin, but doesn’t. Megamind almost explains himself the following Monday at school when Roxanne demands answers, wanting to salvage everything he ruined, but doesn’t. Megamind almost tells her he’s fallen in love with her, almost kisses her in the moment, but doesn’t.

He can’t.

He almost does a lot of things, but the almost friendship/relationship/thing is too much to bear for him and so it’s easier to pretend it never happens.

(Not like he forgets. He almost wishes he could forget, but doesn’t.)     

* * *

 

She escapes, running two at a time up the stairs until she breaks free to feel the fresh air hit her face. Roxanne lets out a shaky breathy, her arms thrown wide as her heels click on the hotel's rooftop. She just—needed to run away, leave the party before she's trapped because the walls are closing in and—

—the Metro Man Museum is set to open next week and she doesn't think she can handle one more invasive question about her "relationship" with said superhero. She just needs to breathe.

There is no wind, but a slight pleasant chill as she walks towards the railing, her long red gown skimming the concrete flooring. The lights in the city are beautiful, twinkling like the stars she can't see and it makes her heart twists.

Sometimes she wishes she can escape from the city too, run away from being a damsel, the show, the game, her life on display. But she doesn’t see it stopping, battles only getting more elaborate as the skates go higher.

Her ears still ring with the overwhelming chatter of the ballroom down below, the intense laughter, the straining pompous and classical music, the way people say  _ Metro Man  _ as if Wayne is a god instead of a normal person.

(She hates the way he responds too. Chipper and deceitful. She knows he hates being a superhero more than anything else and yet, he continues this charade.

Destiny he said. It was destiny. Good is to rise up against evil and this—this is his destiny.)

Roxanne sighs, in her heart praying that every brilliant streetlight she sees could be real stars that could grant all her deepest desires, but wishes are heard by electricity unfortunately.

When she finally turns around, she almost screams, but instead lays a hand over her racing heart. "Megamind," she breathes.

The supervillain in questions looks awkwardly at her, in mid step as if he was about to run away yet stops when he is caught. In an instance, he straightens and straightens his collar, schooling his sheepish look into a smirk. "Miss Ritchi, we meet again." 

She scoffs and crosses her arms over her chest, and leans against the railing once more. "So it would seem," she says. "Off to unleash some devious plan?"

Megamind laughs and waggles a finger. "Oh ho, nosy reporter. You'll shall get no answers out of me."

Roxanne rolls her eyes and tilts her head to the side, eyes closed, stretching her neck as she badly wants to readjust the sweetheart neckline of her dress. "Whatever you say, supergenius. Anyway, are you here to kidnap me or what?" she says rubbing the side of her neck.

When Megamind doesn't answer, she opens her eyes to find him staring at her, slightly blushing before abruptly turning as he is caught gawking. He coughs once before giving his attention back to Roxanne and looks as composed as usual.

"Actually, you weren't on the list of potential victims tonight, Miss Ritchi. I have other people to terrorize besides you."

Roxanne quirks a brow and moves towards him, feeling extremely brave. Usually, if this was an actual kidnapping, she would have already been knocked out by now, so Megamind has to be telling the truth. She knows from experience though, that if he's caught off guard, that things with Megamind get particularly—interesting.

She stops until she is about a foot away from him, hands behind her back. "And yet here you are, on the same rooftop as me. Makes a girl wonder, Megamind."

Megamind blinks and sputters. "Mi-Miss Ritchi, I'd have you know that I was only passing through to check on some things and you just happened to be here."

She gives him a small smile. “Whatever you say, Megamind.” 

He huffs, patting on his person for what is most likely a smoke bomb when Roxanne grabs his wrist, happy that there are no spikes on his gloves. She doesn’t want to say why she’s happy, she can’t, but—she’ll take interesting if she can get it.

Megamind stares down at her, the white of her skin a stark contrast to the black leather. He looks up at her then, eyes wide and doesn’t try to move away.

“What are you doing?” he whispers. 

Roxanne hums a moment, a thought in the sound, before accepting spontaneity and grinning. “Kidnapping you, I think.” 

“A kidnapping,” he balks, his voice on the edge of laughter. “This is a pretty weak kidnapping, Miss Ritchi. Especially to try and kidnap someone so dangerous such as myself.” 

Roxanne is not very strong, but she grabs his other wrist and holds it too, closing the distance between them. “Well, I don’t need force to kidnap you. Something about how I affect those with weak willed minds and how I’d be an amazing Evil Queen, if I recall.” 

It’s an odd moment when Megamind takes in her words and then throws his head back laughing loudly. Not evil, diabolical laughter, but actual laughter that makes his eyes crinkle. Roxanne’s heart quickens. She just needs to shift, needs things to be different. She’s wants to find out what this is.

When he settles down, he takes a deep breath. “Okay, Miss Ritchi, what is your evil plot for this kidnapping? Trying to unspur me from my coveted place of super villain, are you? 

She ponders his words for a moment and then smiles, sliding her hands to grip his fingers. "Dance with me."

Megamind all but jumps out of his skin, almost tugs away, but doesn’t. "Dance with you? Why in the world would you want to dance with me!"

Roxanne shrugs, ignoring the slight sting, "A spur of the moment thing, but—" she starts to say, before his fingers curl around hers. 

She stills and finds Megamind staring at her, eyes burning and the pressure of his hands gentle. “...there’s no music...” he admits after a thoughtful moment. 

Roxanne’s heart swells in her chest as she takes a step closer. She lays a hand at his shoulder and uses her other one to hold his. “I’m sure we’ll manage.”

Moonlight washes over them, outlines them with silver. Megamind can surprisingly dance well, light on his feet and sways her to follow a loose waltz. His touch barely skims the small of her back, warming her through the material, making her want and long for something she can’t quite place. 

He grins, his smile dazzling and his eyes sparkling. “You’re right about the music.” 

She beams. “I’m right about a lot of things.” 

He laughs and twirls her. “Only sometimes Miss Ritchi.”

This moment is perfect, Roxanne thinks. She thinks back to when she was a young girl, thinks back to when she saw a schoolhouse explode. Thinks back to when she sat next to a boy in school. Thinks back to a lot of things. Megamind has always been blurry at his edges, just slightly out of reach as he skips away.

If only—

If only she could freeze this moment and let it continue, stand up on her tiptoes and—     

“--kiss you,” she says, lost in the motion as streetlamps that are twinkling starlight spin like mad around her. 

Megamind freezes, his arms stiff and his expression blown open. “What?” 

Her words finally echo into her ears and she swallows thick, truth trembling at her lips. “I just—I want to kiss you.” 

And it’s a story of almost, you see, a story where she knows that Megamind could have leaned forward and kissed her like people in movies do. Smiled and said a snarky comment. Put his lips atop hers and held her close. Follow this moment to wherever it might lead. 

But he doesn’t and she doesn’t get the chance to as one moment she blinks and Megamind has a fragile smile that looks like it’s about to shatter any second. He almost leans forward, not down but to pause at her forehead, his words warm. 

“Good night, Miss Ritchi,” he says. 

And she blinks once more, the world covered in smoke and—

He’s gone. 

(She almost cries, almost screams, but Roxanne reminds herself that just like the young girl left long waiting long ago, the almost between Roxanne and Megamind is not meant to be.)  


End file.
